The One Left Behind

When I first met Lia, I was starting my new job, and she was my boss. She was tall (6 feet), with red hair, and a very friendly and nice personality. She was easy going but firm to stick with the rules. She and I would talk about life things from time to time. We talked about her mom’s death from cancer, and later my sister. She and I would sometimes talk about her love life and how she was looking for the perfect guy. One who was self-sufficent and didn’t live with his parents. And then, one day, she found him.

After she met John, there was always a glow that came from Lia. If you could picture a bubble of happiness radiating out of here, that is how much she glowed. She said to me a few times, “He makes me feel short!” Last November, she and John got engaged while taking a trip to Florida. She sent pictures of “her trip”, and when she got back, she was teased about how it was just pictures of her trip were mostly pictures of her engagement ring. The only real “trip” picture was her ring with the sunset behind it. The email she sent said, “We can’t wait to be married. We are definitely perfect together.” And every time she sent me a picture, that’s the way it seemed. You could see the love for each other in their faces.

Today, our manager came over to talk to my coworker. My ears perked as I caught that sentence “he was killed yesterday”. It turns out John was riding a motorcycle without a helmet and rear ended a car. One of the news stories I read said that a helmet probably wouldn’t have saved him anyway. He was 29 years old. It makes me sad, when I think about how I saw Lia at work last November, so happy after being engaged for a few weeks. I think about what a nice person she is, and how perfect they seemed together. I hate to see this happen to her.

But most of all, I think of how short life can be.